Ebiking is cheap!

Where is it written that a hub motor has to be used ? There are other electric motors available too. I know hub motors are super easy to install and use, but they are not the only thing available. I didn't think there was an electric bike bible and the first two commandments were:

1.Thou shall use only lithium batteries.
2.Thou shall use only hub motors.
 
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I know you could rig like a dog bark collar every time you peddle below 5MPH it shocks ya on da bike seat LOL Bet you'd get plenty of torq outta that LOL Bottom line is weight and AH is the major obstacles which are being resolved. The price of gas as well as all the pollutants involved is pushing the industry to wake up & smell the coffee. I give it 10 years to convert to electric.
 
norm
then what motor will pull #300 pounds of battery plus trailer, bicycle/trike/quad and still be able to do 20mph on less then a 1000 watt motor

unless you have solar panels to recharge from your still burning fossil fuels and even if you do how did the solar panels and every thing else get delivered?
50% of the electric produced in the usa is from coal. Now do a search on coalash spills.
Nothing is perfect but walking jogging running or swimming. In some parts of the world all electricity comes from diesel burning generators.
 
Mike B said:
It will take ~1 KWH of energy to charge the battery and that costs 15 cents here at the most expensive rate.

So lets look at 1 battery's worth of riding, 30,000 miles

EBike
Battery - $600
1000 KWH of electricity - $150
Cost to ride 30,000 miles - $750

Gas bike at 100 miles per gallon
300 gallons of gas at $4/gal - $1,200

How about that?
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I like a lot of things about eBikes, quiet operating chief among them, and will probably move methodically over that way myself eventually (and predict many of us will) but for right now those numbers are not exactly universal.

None of my MABs get less than 150 mpg, (that's conservative, some get 175mpg) or 200 gallons for 30K mi. Local gas is currently at a state average of $3.43@gal. 200 X 3.43 = $686. (national gasoline average is $3.41@gal http://www.gasbuddy.com/)

Using the same formula above would shave that to under $700 currently for gas.
Just sayin'.

BTW, I kinda assumed a LiFePO4 was gonna run me $1K so that holds up and it comes for less, that is good news.
 
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Ibedayank said:
then what motor will pull #300 pounds of battery plus trailer, bicycle/trike/quad and still be able to do 20mph on less then a 1000 watt motor

unless you have solar panels to recharge from your still burning fossil fuels and even if you do how did the solar panels and every thing else get delivered?
50% of the electric produced in the usa is from coal. Now do a search on coalash spills.
Nothing is perfect but walking jogging running or swimming. In some parts of the world all electricity comes from diesel burning generators.
Click to expand...

I don't know of anything that will pull that much weight around. At least not an electric one. I just said there are other alternatives to lead acid. I had mentioned Nimh batteries. I personally have had great luck with them. No complicated and expensive battery management systems either. I also am lucky enough to have a dedicated battery store near to where i live that can get me almost anything i want. I may have to get creative with mounting, but at least i have choices.

I don't consider solar panels to be of much use to anyone other than as a novelty item. Unless they have improved an awful lot over the past few years. They simply will not do a good enough job of producing power for their cost. Windmills do a much better job of producing electricity than solar panels. The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow.

I don't have my head in the sand about how electricity is produced either. The only thing that remotely comes close to being environmentally friendly are hydro electric dams. That is a very good method, but not every part of the world has a Niagra Falls or equivalent.

I am simply trying to suggest other methods than what people seem to think are the only available options.
 
Norm

I would rather have an Ebike but where I live and the roads around me make that just about impossible. IE steep and LONG hills plus its 14 to 22 miles depending on what way I take into work. I have looked around and seen what others are doing with RC motors and bottom bracket drive hub based systems and middrives but the battery part still makes it almost impossible. Even using RC batts to make up a pack the costs are still very high to get the needed range.
 
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